Original Lynyrd Skynyrd Drummer Bob Burns Dead At 64

Original Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Bob Burns died in a single-car crash on April 3rd in Cartersville, Georgia, when his car hit a mailbox and a tree, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. He was 64. Burns, along with Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, and Larry Junstrom formed the band in the mid-1960’s, with Burns splitting from the group in 1974 due to exhaustion.

Burns was featured on Skynyrd’s first two albums, including such classics as “Free Bird,” “Gimme Three Steps,” “Simple Man,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew,” “Workin’ For MCA,” and “Call Me The Breeze,” among others. He last performed with Lynyrd Skynyrd during the band’s 2006 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Guitarist Garry Rossington posted a message on the band’s Facebook page saying: “Well, today I’m at a loss for words, but I just remember Bob being a funny guy. He was just so funny, he used to do skits for us and make us laugh all the time, he was hilarious! Ironically, since we played Jacksonville yesterday. Dale, my daughter and I, went by the cemetery to see some of the guys in the band and my parents grave sites. On the way back, we went by Bob Burns old house, it was there in the carport where we used to first start to practice with Skynyrd. My heart goes out to his family and God bless him and them in this sad time. He was a great great drummer.”

Rossington — the sole surviving member of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band — admits that the their only ambition when starting out was to make it to the big time: “Our dream was, all our lives — in the start of it, after we saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, y’know? — was to make it big and try and die trying. If we never made it, we’d just still be playing clubs, y’know, trying to make it big. I guess we did it.”

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